Upgrade guide

Manual installation

Summary

Warning:

MediaWiki is not compatible with PHP 7.4.0 to 7.4.2 due to an upstream bug. See phab:T246594 for more information.

For experienced users, here is the quick version of the installation instructions. Most users (like if you don't know how to install or check for the prerequisite software on your computer) will want to follow the main installation guide.

Check that your system meets the following minimum requirements. (See Installation requirements for more details. Make sure to also check the RELEASE NOTES shipped with MediaWiki for requirements.) You'll need:

Point your browser to the directory where MediaWiki was extracted and follow the link to the setup screen. It should be in the form http://domain/directory/mw-config/index.php. Replace directory with the path to your extracted MediaWiki folder. If installing on a local machine, replace domain with localhost. If you install locally and later want to access your wiki from domain, then you will need to change LocalSettings.php from localhost to domain. If installed on a remote server, replace domain with your server's domain name (eg: www.myserver.com).

If you are installing for development or testing, consider using MediaWiki-Vagrant, a set of configuration scripts for Vagrant that automate the creation and update of a virtual machine that runs MediaWiki and your choice of extensions and services.

You can also use community resources based on platforms such as Docker.
This is managed by Jenkins and should be kept up-to-date for some time.

These are community based resources and should always be treated with some measure of caution. Use at your own risk.

Warning:

Programs provided by webhosts to automatically install applications such as MediaWiki can, and frequently do, mishandle the process, resulting in errors and a failure to install MediaWiki. If you encounter this problem, it does not mean that you cannot install MediaWiki; all it means is that you should install manually following these steps. There are benefits to doing this, including more control over where on the server and file path you want to install it, the ability to use a shared database, or the ability to control more features of the wiki during the installation.

Wiki families (multiple wikis)

Installing MediaWiki more than once

One approach is to install multiple instances of MediaWiki (such as with a software bundle like the Bitnami MediaWiki Stack) in different directories – one for each wiki.
For example, you want an enterprise wiki and a personal wiki, and you want to keep them totally separate.

Multiple wikis with one MediaWiki

You could use a single installation of MediaWiki for multiple wikis, by either:

Installation assistance

System-specific instructions

The following pages give more detailed installation instructions aimed at specific systems. However, by and large Manual:Installing MediaWiki is more up to date, and better written than the per system docs, and as such it is recommended you first consult the main install instructions before looking at a per system installation documents.